Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson
Yesterday, the Department of Justice
released a scathing 105-page report on patterns and practices of racism and discrimination inside the Ferguson Police Department and municipal courts. While the possibility of the Ferguson Police Department
being disbanded is a real one, the tepid and conservative
response of Ferguson's mayor, James Knowles, in a press conference yesterday did little to give people confidence that real justice will be obtained in the days to come.
As he announced that he had fired one officer for sending racist emails and suspended two others for doing the same, the elephant in the room is the question of exactly what is going to be done about the remaining 99 percent of discrimination that was detailed. After his press conference, in which he primarily said he was advocating diversity training and wouldn't tolerate racist emails, many people were just flat out stumped as to how those two points became his focus from such a comprehensive report.
When I posed the question on Twitter, "What do you think will happen to the Ferguson Police now that the DOJ report has been released?," 25 of 26 people said some variation of "nothing at all." In fact, I've had a hard time finding one single person who sincerely believed that any elected officials in Missouri are going to earnestly respond to the DOJ with tenacity.
It's understandable. While task forces and panels have been formed in St. Louis and DC, the lingering question is, how can a report detail 105 pages of racism, but so few people be held accountable for it?
Why does Chief Thomas Jackson still have a job?
Why do the officers who wrongfully arrested people who were doing nothing but being black in Ferguson still have jobs?
Why do the officers who allowed dogs to repeatedly bite African Americans year after year have jobs?
And if any of these officers are fired or the entire department is disbanded, are they all just going to be allowed to move to new departments around Ferguson like Darren Wilson and Jeff Roorda have done?
Who's in charge of making sure what the DOJ said in the report is enacted? What timeline are they on?
These and so many more questions remain. And the longer the remain, the less faith people have in the possibility of justice.